Olivia began her yoga practice in 2012 in the hot yoga Bikram style in Charlottesville, Virginia. Over the years since, Olivia has practiced yoga in every city and country she has traveled to – and eventually found her yoga home in Falls Church, Virginia.
With a focus in mind practice, Olivia has sat two 10-day Vipassana meditation retreats in the Goenka style. Olivia acknowledges that mindfulness practice can take us into the deep complexity of our minds, and focuses on nurturing and guiding students on their journeys inwards – which can be just as challenging, if not more so than the physical asanas.
We begin this 75-minute class with sun salutation warm up, light stretch, seated body scan, and close with metta meditation. Now that we are maybe a little too close to our loved ones, this is a good time to practice loving-kindness meditation - especially towards the difficult relationships or difficult people in our lives. This is a great class to practice with the family together.
In this 75-minute yin yoga class, poses are held for 3-5 minutes in order to target connective tissue such as ligaments, tendons, bone, and fascia. As opposed to yang yoga – our power vinyasa and sculpt classes, which primarily work the muscle tissues.The yin practice begins where the yang practice ends – with a focus on stillness, surrender, and surfing the edge of comfort and discomfort. Both practices focus on breath, and bringing awareness into the body.You might be asking what style of yoga you need. The answer is both. At times when you have been still or inactive for long periods of time (i.e. sitting behind a desk at a computer) the benefits of a yang practice will be evident. And then when life has been a roller coaster and frantic, the benefits of yin become evident.
